With the capture of Montreal by General Richard Montgomery and the presence of Colonel Benedict Arnold’s force of 600 men on the Plains of Abraham, Britain’s foothold in Canada had dwindled to about one square mile, the area within the mighty walls of Quebec City. Now the defenses of that fortress would be tested by a band of determined Americans.
The city they planned to assault is in one of the more beautiful locations in North America. Quebec City sits high on a promontory about 300 feet above the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles Rivers. In 1775, it was comprised of a Lower Town filled with wharves, warehouses, and small houses and an Upper Town nestled behind the massive ramparts of Quebec. A sheer face of granite rose from the river to Upper Town.
Immediately in front of the city walls was a large area of fields used for cattle grazing called the Plains of Abraham, named after a French fisherman who owned the area in the 1600s. It was here that French General Louis-Joseph Montcalm was defeated by British General James Wolfe in 1759, thus losing the city during the French and Indian War.
Soon after arriving at Quebec City, Arnold boldly issued a demand to the inhabitants of the city to surrender or face an assault by the Americans. The Canadians took a quick look at Arnold’s force in their thread bare clothing, without any artillery, and looking half starved, and decided they would take their chances with his threatened attack.
